Female Coaches

I have been coaching waterpolo for almost 2 years now. I many other assistant coaches for the club have come and gone. Throughout the past couple years I have noticed a trend with the female coaches and their treatment and behavior on the pool deck. One major thing I have noticed is that they appear to be treated differently from the rest of the coaching staff. They are often treated as if they were unable to control the number of players that a male coach can. This appears true often with some of the female coaches but not all of them. However, there ability to control large numbers of players at once is really no different then any male coach when they first start out. But they do tend to be more soft spoken when it comes to instructions. I have also noticed the treatment of female coaches from a players point of view. When I had my first female assistant coach i had no problem following instruction from her. However, many of the other players on the team had trouble following her leadership until she had proven herself as a quality coach. This was not the case when we had a new male coach brought on staff. I imagine that my experiences with female coaches would be similar with other peoples experiences or observations. Please expand upon this topic.

Justin Koeppen
Kin 338I T/Th 9:30